Amanda Brown: HIV Positively Positive

On Sunday April 1st at 9pm EST Robert and Jeromy spoke with Blogger Amanda Brown. Amanda was born in Hyannis, Massachusetts. In 1998 at the age of 18, she joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints against her parents wishes, packed up and moved to Utah to attend Brigham Young University. Not long after graduation in 2002 she left the Church, accepted the fact that she was gay and came out of the closet to her friends and family.

A few months later she joined the U.S. Army with hopes of attending Medical School on their dime. She was raped nearing the end of Basic Training, tested HIV positive shortly after and was discharged. After being on the patient side of the fence, she decided a career in the medical field would not be in her future. She attended the University of Utah where she earned a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. In 2005 she succumbed to religious peer pressure that the rape happened because she wasn't living the "right" way.She decided to leave her gayness in the closet and go back to Church where she married a young Mormon man, only to come to her senses a year later and leave both the man and the Church for good.

She decided that HIV would not prevent her from doing the things she loves and never has allowed it to get in the way of her ambitious dreams. In 2010 and 2011 she played for the Utah Jynx (a Women's full contact Semi-Pro Football team). If you ask her what her greatest accomplishment in life is... she will proudly say, "I ran a marathon in 2008, it took me six hours... but I did it." She is currently writing a children's book called "The Monster Under My Bed." A story about an 11-year old boy with HIV/AIDS. Aside from maintaining her own website with a personal blog and a free text message service for individuals with questions related to HIV/AIDS, she volunteers for her local AIDS Foundation.

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I describe myself as a "positive person with purpose." My goal is to help people living with HIV/AIDS discover similarities in each other ... and form friendships. I want to ease the shock of a diagnosis and remind people that our dreams are not infected. I am also an HIV/AIDS cyber-activist, radio show host, blogger and social network guru.

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